Journalists are, by nature, crafty folk who are wonderfully adept at stalking — I mean, finding sources and relevant information for various and sundry stories. Well, the advent of social media has made the process of reporting all the more nuanced, and has served as a vital channel for everything from finding leads to contacting sources to sharing and furthering one’s brand.

Still, as the Internet continues to expand, it can be difficult to pick and choose which tools are right for journalists — it can be daunting to litter one’s desktop with Twitter applications, social networks, location-based tools and blogs.

Tools such as Face book and Twitter serve as excellent filters for the masses of information circulating on the web. Although many journalists swear by Twitter as a method of spotting and filtering out trends, Face book can also function as a vital reporting tool.

Journalists gather lot of information through these social networking sites. Much of the news would not have been possible even without these social sites.